II. AMMON, or Hammon, or Jupiter Ammon, the celebrated God of the Egyptians, whom we take to be the same as Ham, who peopled Africk, and was the Father of Mizraim, the Founder of the Egyptians1. Ammon had a famous Temple in Africk, where he was adored under the figure of a Ram; for in this manner the Egyptians represented their Gods under the form of certain animals. The Temple of Ammon was situated in a delicious spot, surrounded every where with a frightful desart. Here there was an Oracle of eminent note, which Alexander the Great consulted. This Oracle however, as well as others, fell insensibly into contempt. In Strabo’s time it was not in the vogue it had been, and in Plutarch’s time scarce any regard at all was had to it; and in the reign of Theodosius, according to the testimony of Prudentius, there was no more talk of it. The Scripture says nothing of this false Deity in particular, but speaks of Ham, and of the City of Ammon or No-Ammon, which was principally devoted to it. Hammon, the God of the Egyptians, was the same as the Jupiter of the Greeks2; for which reason these latter call the City which the Egyptians name No-Ammon, the habitation of Ammon, Diospolis, or the City of Jupiter.
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Footnotes
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Translators’ note. Sir Isaac Newton, in his Account of the Empire of Egypt, tells us, that Sesostris or Sesac, after his Father’s death, built Temples to him in his Conquests; whence it came to pass that Jupiter Ammon was worshipped in Ammonia, and Ethiopia, and Arabia, and as far as India, according to the Poet, Lucan l. ix. Quamvis Ethiopum populis, Arabumque beatis Gentibus, atque Indis unus sit Jupiter Ammon. Chronology, &c. p. 216. ↩
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Translators’ note. In After-ages the Egyptian and Greek names were both united, and this Deity was called Jupiter Hammon. ↩